Have you ever gone through a toll booth and been told your toll was already paid by the car ahead of you? Or had a dish of Jell-O sent to your table at a highway diner by the smiling waitress who told you it was courtesy of the man who just left? I have.
My response was to laugh and immediately pay the toll for the car behind me. As I drove on, I wondered whether the smiling toll-taker was taking all his tolls that day for the next car in line. Think of all the people who might have left smiling — not to mention the toll-taker, who had a story to bring home that day.
Now that I think of these acts of kindness, I am reminded of others. One very early May 1 morning, I was driving through Charlemont and was stopped by a police officer. He told me I was speeding and took out his pad to give me a ticket. I was very flustered and apologized.
“I’m so sorry officer, but I was rushing to finish getting my May Baskets delivered before it got too light.”
He peered at the baskets of pansies on the back seat, shook his head and put away his pad.
“Go on,” he said, “but go slower!”
There is a shared joy in these acts of kindness; they were unexpected gifts. I recently found out there is actually a Random Acts of Kindness holiday, celebrated annually on Feb. 17. There is even a Random Acts of Kindness website, in case you can’t think of some small thing to pass on to a stranger or a friend.
As gardeners, we are performing random acts of kindness all the time. Gardeners just can’t help themselves. We are always sharing seeds and divisions of plants that have gotten too big. We bring potted flowering plants to those who can’t garden the way they used to, and make bouquets to bring to our friends who are ill. We share our vegetable and fruit bounties.
Gardeners spread these acts of kindness around the community. My volunteer group planted the public garden at the John Zon Community Center, and then we watered it and kept it weeded. We wanted to make a beautiful garden for the public, and for the pollinators. Volunteers also plant and maintain the pollinator gardens at Energy Park.
Gardeners donate plants and labor to plant sales that will beautify the community. I once spent a morning potting up plants for the Bridge of Flowers Plant Sale in May. I possibly potted a dozen plants, but when the plant sale was set up, I saw the total 1,300 plants potted up by volunteers.
We hold gardening tours to share our enthusiasm, our experiences and our knowledge. Garden clubs use the money they raise to encourage children to learn from their school gardens, or to support institutions like Forbes Library.
Not all random acts of kindness occur in the garden. There are scores of volunteers at our Baystate Franklin Medical Center. When we civilians enter the hospital, we can use kindness, and volunteers cheerfully supply it. I speak from experience.
Our wonderful Greenfield Public Library has dozens of volunteers who help in many ways, including delivering books to those who can no longer get to the library themselves.
There are volunteers working in the schools in many capacities. Children know they are loved by their parents, but then they go out to the wide world of school and find kindness there, too. First, their teachers love them, and then the volunteers do. I read to a first-grade class on most Fridays, and I can tell you that I get more kindness than I give because I have 16 little people laughing and sitting at my feet.
Volunteers cook up great lunches at the Stone Soup Café every Saturday. Those lunches are free to those in need and others are pay-what-you-can.
Clearly, kindness is not limited to a single day in the year. Kindness is all around us, waiting to be shared.
Pat Leuchtman has been writing and gardening since 1980. Readers can leave comments at her website: commonweeder.com.